Digitally Transforming Project Management

Portfolio Managers Use P3M Engine

Mon, 27 Sep 2021 22:59:53 GMT

The Portfolio Manager needs a clear line of sight to everything. This has to start with being able to see everything of interest at once and having the ability to drill into anything at will. In P3M Engine, that starts with the ad-hoc Portfolio view of projects. This is distinguished from an investment portfolio, which is defined as part of investment management processes.

You can add any project you want to an ad-hoc portfolio and then name it and save it for quick reference later. From the portfolio (saved or not), you can see a list of all projects it contains, with relevant information for each project. You can drill into each project to see the details. That context makes the portfolio view a convenient starting point, or work hub, for the Portfolio Manager.

From the Monitoring and Controlling screen, every dashboard and chart that you normally see for a project, will display data for the entire portfolio that is selected. So, for example, if you want to know the average time it takes to resolve high and critical issues across the portfolio, you have an answer. If you want to know the total accumulated cost of all approved change requests across the portfolio, you have an answer.

If you want to compare the health and performance of all projects in a portfolio but are not sure if all Project Managers manage health the same way, never fear. P3M Engine is here. Health flag rules can be defined by your organization. They are standardized across the organization. They can even be configured to set automatically, taking that decision out of the hands of the project manager. Under these conditions, health flags are guaranteed to be consistent across all projects, for all portfolios.

Whether your most important need is to have broad, deep, and flexible visibility or to have consistency that allows you to compare projects across a portfolio, P3M Engine has you covered.

For more information see https://www.p3mengine.com .

Why Department Heads Use P3M Engine

Tue, 17 Aug 2021 01:27:06 GMT

Department Heads need to ensure everything is running smoothly and efficiently. They cannot afford any wasted motion or cost. The most vulnerable aspect of complex program management to this wasted motion is the planning. Fortunately, P3M Engine does a very nice job of fixing this problem.

The larger and more complex that projects and programs get, the more critical it is to be very organized and plan well. The cornerstone of that planning is the PMP (Program/Project Management Plan). The PMP needs to be very comprehensive and cover every aspect of project or program governance. This will include a subplan that addresses each knowledge area of PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge).

I have seen PMPs take as long as four months to define, as program managers seek out necessary requirements, priorities, and guidance from multiple stakeholders and then go through a procession of approval processes. It is painful to a Department Head to watch the budget and time bleed away like that.

P3M Engine comes with a default PMP, including a sub-plan for each knowledge area, that is tailored to the processes and features embedded in P3M Engine. So, the default PMP is highly effective right out of the box. But clients can configure every element of the PMP as they want. Since the PMP drives system behavior, configuring the PMP declares policy and governance, and at the same time makes it happen.

P3M Engine supports multi-layered configurability. So, every part of the organization can configure independently. This is how it works.

The organization starts with P3M Engine’s default PMP. They will configure it to define the organization’s governance and standards. If the organization allows it, each PMO in the organization can then modify the organization standard PMP to suit their PMO governance and standards. In turn, if the PMO allows it, programs can modify the PMO PMP to suit their governance and standards.

Modifying an existing PMP takes a fraction of the time that preparing a PMP from scratch would take. You have all the benefit of the time and thought that went into configuring the level above you. And the level above you had the benefit of the years of experience that went into defining the default PMP.

As a result, all projects and programs save time, effort, and cost as they are planned. They also operate more efficiently and effectively since their planning leverages years of expertise and the P3M Engine PMP forces operations to execute as governed.

For more information see http://www.p3mengine.com .

Why Project Managers Use P3M Engine

Wed, 14 Jul 2021 01:40:52 GMT

I can remember preparing project status reports manually. It took a couple hours to collect information and copy and paste it into a status report. Then you had to adjust the formatting so it would look good. If you were lucky, you only had one report to do. I have had as many as five stakeholders, each with a different status report format they wanted.

Fortunately, project managers do not face that anymore if they have a tool like P3M Engine they can use. P3M Engine provides several ways to reduce the workload on Project Managers and improve the accuracy of status reports. These include:

· Automated Data Load

· Configurable Content Type

· Multiple Stakeholder Support

· Configurable Inclusion

· Hierarchy Support

Automated Data Load – P3M Engine status reports are a combination of quantifiable data that is pulled from the system, and subjective content written by the Project Manager. The system data is automatically loaded to a new status report. The data is unalterable and accurate. The Project Manager is unencumbered by the retrieval of all this system data. Project Managers now do what they should be doing—commenting on the data.

Configurable Content Type – Many different types of content can be loaded into a P3M Engine status report. This includes risks, issues, decisions, change requests, deliverables, milestones, and dependencies. Typical information will include data such as title, due date, and health flag. You can configure which content types are included and which are not. If the system finds any included content type to have no relevant records, then the content type is left off the report.

Multiple Stakeholder Support – Part of the beauty of having Automated Data Load and Configurable Content Type is that you can now prepare as many different status reports, in differing formats, as you like. Different report formats can be prepared, including any content type in a variety of locations on the report. The Project Manager’s subjective comments are stored in a single location, like the rest of the data. Now you are setup to publish status reports of varying formats with the click of a button. Bring on the stakeholders.

Configurable Inclusion – Not everything should be showing up in a status report. For each content type, the Project Manager has the capability to mark what should be reported. For example, the Project Manager may be tracking 20 risks, but only three of them warrant the attention of stakeholders and should appear on a status report. The Project Manager will mark those three risks as visible and only those will appear on the status report.

Hierarchy Support – The Project Manager can also mark at what level an item should be visible. So, in the example above, if one of those three visible risks has been escalated and needs to appear in the program status report, the Project Manager can mark it as Program level. In that case it will appear in both the program status report and the project status report. It needs to be visible in both places since it is managed by the project and escalated to the program. P3M Engine tracks this and takes care of it for you.

P3M Engine does what a software system is supposed to do. It enables users to execute processes faster and more reliably with less effort and less cost.

For more information see http://www.p3mengine.com .

P3M Engine Helps Program Managers

Fri, 25 Jun 2021 23:23:18 GMT

One of the ways to make order out of chaos is to organize. The brain recognizes patterns and can work on something familiar much more effectively than something unfamiliar. P3M Engine does some things to provide familiarity. P3M Engine organizes work according to PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) and it provides context for everything.

A program manager can readily identify the five PMBOK process groups and leverage them like a checklist to ensure a program is well managed.

· Initiating - Essential information is collected and communicated to ensure approval and successful communications.

· PMP (Program Management Plan) – The governing structure and operating processes are established. P3M Engine provides a great PMP, by default. It can be modified as needed.

· Executing – Everything that must be managed to execute effectively is included in P3M Engine. No need to go elsewhere.

· Monitoring and Controlling – Status reporting is very robust. Over 30 charts across all PMBOK knowledge areas are included to monitor operational effectiveness.

· Closing – There is even a way to provide feedback, collect lessons learned, and ensure stakeholder acceptance.

P3M Engine provides the right context for a program manager. Context is important. Context provides familiarity. It also provides an anchor from which to work.

In P3M Engine, everything is displayed for you with context. A program manager can define their program as a portfolio of projects and then view them together on one screen, as a program. From the context of that program, each project within the program can be viewed. Click on it to see a detail screen.

From the project detail screen, you can see singular information about the project, such as start date, end date, budget, sponsor, and manager (at the top). You can also see related lists of information (at the bottom), including:

· Status Reports

· Reviews

· Change Requests

· Risks

· Issues

· Action Items

· Decisions

· Deliverables

· Milestones

· Dependencies

· Resource Allocations

· Costs

· Communications Plan

All of this can be seen from the program details screen as well as the project details screen. So, you can view individual project information and you can view program information. So, for any given project or any given program, you can see all the status reports, all the reviews, all the change requests, etc.

From the detail screens for each of these, you will see the same familiar pattern – details at the top and related lists at the bottom. It is all delivered with context. For every communications plan, you will see a list of communications needs. For every communications need, you will see a list of communications events. For every communications event, you can see a list of documents, identified risks, identified issues, action items, and decisions.

If every performer, on every project keeps information in P3M Engine, then the program manager can see everything at their convenience instead of being constrained by the availability of project performers to get information.

For more information see http://www.p3mengine.com .

Why Stakeholders Use P3M Engine

Fri, 11 Jun 2021 01:29:22 GMT

Status reports are a tried-and-true way for a project team to communicate progress and health of a project to the stakeholders. P3M Engine can generate some powerful, information-packed status reports. But what is a stakeholder to do if they want more information than is in the status report? What if the stakeholder is more hands-on than the typical stakeholder?

In P3M Engine, stakeholders can subscribe to specific items like decisions and change requests. That will give them two tools at their disposal. On their Personal Control Panel, they will be able to monitor all items to which they are subscribed. That means they will see the open items in a list, and they can click on them to see details. They will also be notified, by email, of any changes and upon important events in the life of their subscribed items. The combination of subscriptions and the Personal Control Panel provide a tailored way to manage your work.

If a stakeholder needs to find something in P3M Engine that is not at their fingertips already, by way of the Personal Control Panel, they can search for it. There are multiple ways to search P3M Engine for the information you need.

· System-wide Simple Search

· Item-specific Simple Search

· Item-specific Advanced Search

System-wide Simple Search

You can search all item types at once with a simple key word search. For example, you might conduct a simple search on the word ‘count’ and get a list of items including a deliverable to create ac count s, an action item to establish head count , and a change request comment declaring the request to be count er to the architecture plan. Click any item in this list and you will navigate to the detail screen for that item.

Item-specific Simple Search

If you know what type of item you want, you can go to the right list and search only within that list. The list will be filtered to only the items that match your search. This simple key word search is available on all the lists that can be found on the main menu bar.

Item-specific Advanced Search

If you need more muscle than a simple keyword search, you can use a more advanced search that lets you search on elements specific to the item type, such as due date. This advanced search is available on all logs. Click the Advanced Search button and the advanced search features will become visible for you.

You can add search criteria to any field that is visible. The list filters automatically as you fill in search fields. The top row has a Select Search dropdown box and a button to Save Search. You can save any search criteria you create and then select it from the Select Search dropdown box in the future.

Regardless of how you choose to find information and documents, you do not have to search in multiple locations. Simply look in P3M Engine. These capabilities give the stakeholder everything they need to be knowledgeable and effective.

For more information see http://www.p3mengine.com .

Why VP Project Management Uses P3M Engine

Wed, 12 May 2021 23:45:41 GMT

Larger enterprises with robust program and project management operations have two needs that tend to be in opposition to each other.

· PMO Flexibility - An enterprise may have multiple PMOs and each PMO may run multiple programs. Each PMO and program should have the flexibility to tailor their governance to their specific environment and needs. To accomplish this, each PMO or program typically needs a different instance of PMIS (Program Management Information System) software.

· Enterprise Consistency - It is important to be as consistent as possible across the enterprise so all reporting can roll up to the enterprise and performance comparisons can be made. It is important for PMOs to be able to share information with other PMOs. To accomplish this, you typically place all on a single instance of PMIS software.

You cannot have both. If you provide flexibility, you sacrifice consistency. If you enforce consistency, you give up flexibility. But not anymore. P3M Engine has solved that problem.

P3M Engine enables each client to tailor P3M Engine behavior through a new concept called Layered Configurability. Through Layered Configurability, each layer of your program and project management organization (enterprise, PMO, programs) can configure P3M Engine and their processes as needed and manage the capability of the downstream layer to configure their processes. This will provide the flexibility of tailored governance and processes wanted by each part of the organization while giving each layer the consistency needed to facilitate cross-communication and upward reporting and analytics.

Security and project health configurations are available only at the enterprise level. This will support consistency and communications across the enterprise. The remaining configurations are available at all levels.

Over 120 items are configurable in P3M Engine. Here is a summary look.

Health Rules are configurable at the enterprise level, including:

· Scope

· Schedule

· Cost

· Resources

· Colors

· Issues

· Risks

· Actions

· Decisions

· Status Reporting

Operational and process parameters are configurable at all layers:

· Project

· Work Hierarchy

· Logs

· Change Control

· Reviews

· Communications

· Risks

· Issues

· Resources

· Status Reporting

For more information see http://www.p3mengine.com .

Why Project Performers Use P3M Engine

Wed, 28 Apr 2021 01:57:45 GMT

Before a team can be productive and effective, each member of the team must be productive and effective. Then each member of the team must perform with coordination.

The Personal Control Panel in P3M Engine gives each user their personal look at everything in P3M Engine that impacts them personally. Why search all over for what needs to be tracked or done? Go to one place, your Personal Control Panel.

You can review and execute work on all these item types:

· Charters

· Workstreams

· Risks

· Issues

· Action Items

· Decisions

· Deliverables

· Milestones

· Dependencies

· Reviews

· Change Requests

· Comms Events

You will have three groups of cards with icons. The Assigned group shows you what tasks have been assigned to you. The Subscribed group shows you all items to which you have subscribed. The Owned group will show you all items you own, administratively.

Your icons tell you how many tasks you have for each type of task (for assigned tasks). In the other groups you will see how many items you have subscribed to or you own. If you click the icon, the list will be revealed. Click on any item in the list to go to the detail screen.

You can control how these icon cards appear by clicking on Settings in the upper right of the screen. You can control which cards you see, if you see cards that have zero tasks, and if you get notices for each type of item that may send you notices. That includes:

· Risks

· Issues

· Action Items

· Decisions

· Reviews

· Change Requests

In addition to your list of tasks that need to be addressed, you can use the Personal Control Panel to manage your own list of often visited links. You also have a personal Action Item list. There is no point in keeping paper notes, on the side, of things you need to do. If an Action Item list is good for projects, it is good for you. So, use the same Action Item features for your personal list. When you create an Action Item, simply mark it private and it will appear in your private Action Item list and nowhere else.

You also have a floating Taskbox that lets you see all your tasks. The difference is that it floats. It appears on every page. It is an inconspicuous red number in the lower right corner of your screens. This number represents the number of open tasks you have. Click the number and your Taskbox will be displayed for you. From the Taskbox you can click on a task and you will be taken to the screen where you can complete the task.

Having everything in one place makes it all so much easier to manage and makes you, the project performer, so much more effective.

For more information see http://www.p3mengine.com .

P3M Engine for PMO Directors

Thu, 15 Apr 2021 01:10:51 GMT

PMOs vary in scope and responsibility, and so the daily activities of the PMO director can vary as well. Usually, PMO Directors will have responsibility for the successful completion of all the programs and projects under their purview. The PMO Director will get a lot of questions and needs to have all the answers. They will be expected to do far more than what any one human being can accomplish.

P3M Engine provides the tools a PMO Director needs in two important ways.

· P3M Engine provides visibility to everything from one place.

· P3M Engine provides active prompting to everyone on the team to complete their tasks in a timely manner.

Visibility to Everything – Not only does P3M Engine provide visibility to everything, but it does this with the right context. Nobody needs everything thrown at them. You cannot find anything that way. A person needs context. The PMO Director can start with their portfolio of work. From the context of that portfolio, select a program or project. See everything about that program or project, including charter, PMP, and how the work execution is progressing. From the context of the program or project, the PMO Director can see subordinate work, status reports, reviews, change requests, risks, issues, action items, decisions, deliverables, milestones, dependencies, resource allocations, costs, and a communications plan.

Seeing those details is good for executing. But PMO Directors need to monitor and control as well. P3M Engine comes with over 30 charts for just that reason. The charts cover all the areas mentioned above. A PMO Director can view each chart for each program or project or for their portfolio, as a whole.

Active Prompting – Everybody on the team is at or over capacity. It is so easy for things to get missed or fall through the cracks. Start by recording things in P3M Engine and assigning someone to complete them. That includes risks, issues, action items, decisions, and change requests. P3M Engine will keep you organized. Whoever is assigned will be notified. The assignment will appear in their Personal Control Panel and in a Taskbox that can float on every page of P3M Engine. These tools give everyone a direct link to their work and an idea how much work is in their queue. As deadlines approach and health status moves from green to yellow to red, people assigned are actively prompted to pay attention to these tasks. This is an enormous help to everyone in prioritizing their work and helps the PMO Director ensure that everyone on staff is prioritizing work and not missing anything.

These are just two of the ways P3M Engine helps the PMO Director. There are many more. As P3M Engine helps all the other roles, some of the burden is lifted from the PMO Director. I will address more roles in future blog posts.

For more information see http://www.p3mengine.com .

Who Uses P3M Engine?

Sat, 06 Mar 2021 21:46:35 GMT

One of the advantages of a system like P3M Engine is that all people in all roles on a project will come to one place to share information. Here is a look at some of these roles and why they would like a system like P3M Engine.

PMO Director – Not only do my Project Managers have better oversight, but P3M Engine does too! P3M Engine knows who should be doing what and when. It lets people on the team know when to start, how they are progressing, when they are nearing deadlines, and when they are late. P3M Engine keeps everything moving!

Project Performer – P3M Engine holds all information, which is great. But I also start everything from the same place in P3M Engine, my Personal Control Panel. That is even better. My Personal Control Panel has all my tasks, everything I want to follow, my favorite links, and my private action items to keep me well organized.

Program Manager – I don't have to wait for other people to get the information I need. I just go to P3M Engine. No matter what PMBOK process group or knowledge area, the information is in P3M Engine.

Stakeholder – Nothing eludes me. You can find anything in P3M Engine. It is all there. I can do one search that will look at every type of item in P3M Engine or I can do advanced searches for specifics.

VP Project Management – I can let each PMO configure and govern the way they want. Information still rolls up to me with the consistency I need to compare performance across all PMOs.

Project Manager – My status reports are mostly built for me. I can support multiple stakeholders with multiple reporting requirements without extra work.

Portfolio Manager – All the health flags are system generated and I defined the rules. This is NOT open to interpretation. I have complete confidence in the reporting.

Department Head – Each new program has a Program Management Plan already in place when the program launches. That saves me two months of work for every program.

In the months ahead I will take a closer look at these roles and explain how they each get the benefits they see.

For more information see http://www.p3mengine.com .

What Happened to 2020?

Sat, 23 Jan 2021 03:11:35 GMT

What a year 2020 proved to be. Fortunately, P3M Engine is truly a cloud-based platform. Customers can log in from anywhere in the world, including their home. Developers and the helpdesk can work from anywhere in the world, including their home. So, P3M Engine did not slow down at all. In fact, it proved to be the perfect tool for this new environment. P3M Engine was great heading into 2020 and even better upon exit. Here are some of the new things you will find in P3M Engine.

Multi-Layer Configurability Enhanced – Added elements that are configurable so organizations, PMOs, and programs have more control over how their P3M Engine behaves. Support is included for projects, hierarchy levels, logs, change control, reviews, communications, risks, issues, resources, and status reporting.

PMP (Project Management Plan) Expanded – There are now ten default subplans that come with the default PMP. Support is included for Integration Management, Change Management, Schedule Management, Scope Management, Cost Management, Management Review, Status Reporting, Resource Management, Communications Management, Risk Management.

Added User Administration – User administration has transitioned from being managed by BizOptimize only to being managed by each customer. Customer administrators can now add and inactivate users, edit users, and manage roles.

Logon and Password Security Made Configurable – Customer administrators can configure logon and password security rules. This includes how the logon screen behaves and minimum password configurations.

Client Setup Automated – Many of the tasks required to setup a new customer have been automated. This reduces the time and cost of setup.

Added Configurable Color Management – Colors are used throughout P3M Engine to depict information. They are commonly used in places like health flags (Red, Yellow, Green) and charts for monitoring and controlling. You can point and click color selection for every element in P3M Engine that uses color.

Search Enhanced – Search has been enhanced in two ways in P3M Engine. You can search on more fields in each type of item found in P3M Engine. You can also now search once across all items. Type in a word, phrase, or set of letters and see where it is found across all items. This includes action items, activities, agenda items, approvals, change requests, comments, communications needs and events, costs, decisions, deliverables, dependencies, documents, invitees, issues, milestones, PMP subplans, resources, reviews, risks, scope, status, and work.

RPA (Robotic Process Automation) Enhanced – RPA enabled the automation of client setup. It enhances the work capability and experience in other ways. Build your initial project information from your charter with the click of a button. P3M Engine moves work through an approval process and prompts for action when needed. P3M Engine adds someone to a project team automatically when you give them a job to do.

Comments Enhanced – Logs and other items can now record multiple, independent comments instead of everyone adding to a single comment.

Approval Process Expanded – An approval process is now independent and can be added to many items in P3M Engine.

Added Export to Excel – This is still simple, but it is there. This feature will be expanded in 2021.

Added Private Action Items – Project teams have kept an action item log for years. But this log is always shared publicly and is not the right place to stay personally organized. Now, in P3M Engine, you can record an action item and mark it private. It will appear on your personal control panel only. This provides a more reliable way for each person on the team to manage their personal action items.

This was a quick tour of 2020. Some of these topics may be explored further in 2021. Stay tuned.

For more information see http://www.p3mengine.com .

Happy New Year 2020

Fri, 03 Jan 2020 00:09:20 GMT

Happy New Year 2020!!

Welcome to 2020!

Hopefully, we all have a clear vision of what we want to accomplish in 2020. At BizOptimize, our vision is to elevate the success of Strategic Execution across all industry sectors by creating significant improvements in both individual portfolio, program, and project outcomes and organizational portfolio, program, and project reliability.

We will accomplish this vision by deploying P3M Engine and coaching its users in:

Good portfolio, program, and project management principles
Use of the built-in P3M (portfolio, program, and project management) processes
Use of the features that help each user successfully execute these processes

The intended outcome is summed up by our bold mission statement: We seek to cut program and project failure rates in half for customers that adopt our P3M Engine processes and technology.

To that end, BizOptimize has used all of its resources to continue to build P3M Engine capabilities, and will continue to do so throughout 2020.

In 2019, P3M Engine grew from MVP (Minimum Viable Product) to an enterprise scale strategic execution solution. Much of the program and project governance and processes that are cumbersome and time-consuming to develop have been built into P3M Engine, making them deployable with a keystroke. These, of course, are defaults that can be modified.

Configuration is not your typical single layer. P3M Engine provides multi-layer configurability. The organization configures P3M Engine. Then, each PMO can further configure, if allowed. Then, each program can further configure, if allowed.

As 2020 rolls in, we continue to add features to the Program Management module of P3M Engine. At the same time, we have begun design of the Portfolio Management module. Like Program Management, Portfolio Management will be aligned to the PMBOK (Project Management Body Of Knowledge).

The Portfolio Management module will enable users to define organizational vision, mission, and strategy and then align all ideas and work to the vision, mission, and strategy. It will support the evaluation of individual ideas as well as multiple candidate portfolios. The work you do to evaluate ideas, such as identifying assumptions, constraints, risks, resources, costs and benefits will not be lost or repeated. This work can all be passed on to the projects automatically, if approved.

I look forward to sharing progress made in 2020. Please stay tuned for updates.

See https://www.p3mengine.com

All the best.

Bill Adams

Layered Configurability

Tue, 24 Sep 2019 22:29:08 GMT

Every client that needs a certain kind of software will operate about the same way, conceptually. But, when it comes to the details, every client is different. Enterprise software vendors need a way to address the differences of each client. The two approaches available today are customization and configuration . You can do either or some of both.

Here is a quick primer.

· Customization – modify the software itself, by modifying the software code or building an add-on component, to behave as desired. This happens when a client wants a behavior that is not in demand by other clients. Because the behavior is not in demand, the client would expect to pay directly for the customization. The software vendor, or a third party, will modify the software or build the add-on to meet the demands of the client. Customization is usually not supported by the software vendor once complete. The advantage is the client gets exactly what they want. Disadvantages are the high cost and risk of maintenance throughout subsequent software releases.

· Configuration – manage the way software operates by changing configuration settings in the software. An administrator, or other trained personnel, can select the configuration settings. The software has been fully tested to operate properly with all the available configuration settings. Configuration settings are added and maintained by the software vendor, typically at no charge to the client. Configuration settings are built into the software and, therefore, supported. The disadvantage is you may not get exactly what you want. An advantage is you may get better than what you want because the software vendor is building configuration based on feedback from many clients. Another advantage is you get a product that is fully tested and supported.

When enterprise software first appeared, customization was the only way clients got what they wanted. After hardships and learning lessons, configuration became available.

Configuration is great for enterprise software. You configure the software for the enterprise and all processes and behaviors work the same across the enterprise. This promotes consistency, communications, and roll-up reporting. But what happens if multiple parts of an enterprise want different behavior or different processes? They will need a different configuration than the rest of the enterprise. That means they need their own instance of the software, which means the consistency, communications, and roll-up reporting goes away.

So, an enterprise needs to balance two competing needs and their two competing solutions.

· Purchase a single instance to have enterprise-wide consistency, communications, and roll-up reporting. Some parts of the enterprise will be stuck with a configuration that does not work for them. They either must work around it or modify their processes to conform to the enterprise.

· Purchase an instance of the software for the enterprise and for each part of the enterprise that wants to be different in order to meet the needs of individual parts of the enterprise. Multiple instances can get expensive and likely cannot communicate with each other. This prevents important capabilities, such as rolling up reports to the enterprise.

Any enterprise that has robust program and project management will have the need to configure differently for different parts of the enterprise. An enterprise may have multiple PMOs and each PMO may run multiple programs. That same enterprise will also have the need for consistency, enterprise-wide communications, and enterprise-wide roll-up reporting. Program reporting must roll-up to the PMO and PMO reporting must roll up to the enterprise. It is important for PMOs to be able to share information with other PMOs. For example, a project in one PMO may have a dependency on a project in another PMO.

P3M Engine introduces the answer to this dilemma with Layered Configurability.

P3M Engine serves an enterprise to any scale. An enterprise can have as many PMOs as needed, each PMO can run as many programs as needed, and each program can have as many projects as needed. They all reside in a single instance of P3M Engine, enabling robust cross-PMO communications and reporting rolling up to the enterprise.

Each PMO and program can configure independently. In P3M Engine, configuration defines your processes. You start by defining and configuring the processes for your enterprise. The enterprise can then permit PMOs to configure some, or all, of their processes. This enables the enterprise to enforce process where needed and allow differentiation where needed. Likewise, a PMO can permit programs to define their processes. The enterprise and PMOs define their processes through an Administrative function. Programs define their processes in their Program Management Plan. What the program is permitted to change, by the PMO, will be enabled in their Program Management Plan. What they are not permitted to change will appear, as information, but is disabled.

Through Layered Configurability, each layer of your program and project management organization (enterprise, PMO, programs) can configure their processes as needed and manage the capability of the layer below to configure their processes. This will provide the tailored processes wanted by each PMO and program while giving each PMO and the enterprise the consistency needed to facilitate good communication and upward reporting and analytics.

See more at http://www.p3mengine.com .

Institutionalized Process

Thu, 16 May 2019 23:21:52 GMT

One of the challenges, in any organization, is to get all the players to follow the process. So, P3M Engine was designed to meet that challenge.

A critical success factor for large projects and programs is consistency. Consistency enables comparisons and it simplifies what must be remembered to manage effectively. If a program has 10 projects in it and they all report on different elements of their projects or they report on the same elements but measure them differently or categorize them differently, there is no way to make comparisons. There is no way to establish a norm. It is difficult to set expectations across the program. There is confusion understanding the progress and health of any project, as leadership tries to remember which measuring protocols belong to which projects.

Multiply this inconsistency and confusion when a program is one of several programs in an organization. It makes managing the work very challenging.

Replacing inconsistency with consistency requires several steps.

· Define the process – Defining how everyone executes their work will create the single-source reference. Everyone who executes work should refer to the process to know the right way to execute.

· Communicate the process – A process collecting dust does no one any good. The process must be communicated to those who will execute the process.

· Execute the process – The people who do work must perform that work as prescribed by the process.

These all have their challenges. If you were to take a sampling of organizations who do not execute consistently, you would find interesting phenomena about these three essential steps.

· Many, but not all, organizations define the process.

· Not all who go to the effort and expense of defining a process communicate the process to those who execute the work.

· Not all performers who have the process communicated to them execute in accordance with the process.

How do you overcome these challenges?

· Define the process – Make it mandatory or make it easier, or both. Well managed projects start with documented plans. There should be an overall project management plan with subplans for knowledge areas such as scope management and change control. Documented default copies of these plans come with P3M Engine. This provides a great starting point for each PMO or program manager. You can modify the plans or not. They are already ideal for using P3M Engine.

· Communicate the process – Usually this is done by sending all project managers an email telling them where the documented process is located. It is also communicated one time during onboarding of new team members. More mature organizations may conduct some training. Some organizations follow portions of a process via management oversight and reviews. Often, the documented process is rarely referenced after being produced. In P3M Engine, all project plans are one click away. They are as easily referenceable as any other project information.

· Execute the process – Usually the only way to ensure the processes are being executed is to have regular management oversight and to have stakeholders demand items, such as required reports, that are produced through properly executed process. These techniques are not very effective. P3M Engine overcomes these weaknesses by embedding processes. Whatever is defined in the project plan is executed by the users as they use P3M Engine. They are inseparable. When the project plan defines how to measure risk, that is how it is measured. When the project plan calls for a specific number of change control boards and defines the thresholds of authority for each, then new change requests go to the appropriate change control boards for action, automatically.

Every large project, program and PMO needs consistency to do their work well. P3m Engine helps ensure that needed consistency by taking most of the work out of process definition and most of the risk out of process execution. If you have never enjoyed consistency before, you will be amazed at how much easier work becomes.

See more at http://www.p3mengine.com/institutionalized-process .

Achieving CMMI for PMO Levels 4 and 5

Wed, 27 Mar 2019 12:15:38 GMT

There are many ways a tool like P3M Engine can help you achieve CMMI levels 4 and 5 for your PMO. If you look at a chart of CMMI for PMO, on the technology row, you will notice a variety of progressively better capabilities for levels 1 through 3. Notice also that both levels 4 and 5 show only a PMIS (Project Management Information System). This is because a PMIS is typically a suite of tools that provides everything you need to boost your maturity.

I would like to add some detail to this concept. Once you start using a PMIS you need to have a little more detail around your digital maturity. So, I have created the CMMI for Digital PMO. It fits entirely within levels 4 and 5 of the CMMI for PMO because this is where you use a PMIS. It has these 5 levels:

· 1 - Informational

· 2 - Tactical

· 3 - Operational

· 4 - Strategic

· 5 - Competitive

Informational – all documents and information can be accessed from a single convenient location. They may not be stored in the same location but can be accessed from a single location. It is important that your information is also well integrated. This will support the practice of writing once and retrieving multiple times from multiple contexts. For example, in P3M Engine you can record a new risk once. Then you can see that risk from the project risk log, the PMO risk log, the meeting notes where the risk was identified, the communications need that is tracking the risk, the personal control panel and the floating task box of the person assigned the risk, and all relevant status reports and dashboards.

Tactical – let the PMIS do work for you. Any work the system does will go faster and be less prone to error. Here are some examples where P3M Engine automates processes or provides information that is in addition to or better than what was written to the system.

· Calculations – P3M Engine can leverage information you enter in the system to create additional helpful information. One example is computing the risk exposure for a risk or the average or maximum risk exposure for your project or program.

· Notifications – when someone needs to be aware of new information or needs to take action quickly, they need to be promptly informed. You can receive notification when assigned something new such as risks, issues, action items, decisions, reviews, and approvals.

· Personal Task Lists – P3M Engine provides two personal task lists. One is part of your personal page and appears the same way many other pages with lists appear. The other is a “floating” task box that you can open from any page. With both the personal page and the floating task box you see your tasks and links can take you right to where you need to manage that task.

· Reports – in P3M Engine reports can be automatically populated with many kinds of quantified information. This includes risks, issues, decisions, change requests, deliverables, milestones, and dependencies. Then project and program managers can add subjective commentary.

These are the basics. The remaining three levels are more advanced than needed for this blog post.

All of the capabilities provided in just the first two CMMI for Digital PMO levels of a good PMIS like P3M Engine will land you squarely in level 4 of CMMI for PMO.

For more information about P3M Engine, visit http://www.p3mengine.com .

Secured!

183:690373060 (Bill Adams) — Sat, 26 Jan 2019 17:31:04 GMT

Security is not the most exciting topic in the world. But, it is one of the most important, particularly if you will be collecting important and valuable information on a cloud-based system. All the information found in a PPM (Portfolio and Program Management) system, like P3M Engine, must be secured. Securing that information properly is not as simple as giving someone login credentials and granting them access to their own account. There are many different roles to consider. Business sponsors, stakeholders, program managers, project managers, PMO Leads, business analysts and others all have different responsibilities and want different things from their tools. Each of those roles will be engaged in project work. So, they will be part of one or more project teams. Or, they may have oversight or administrative responsibilities for many or all projects.

In consideration of the special nature of program and project work, P3M Engine incorporates security that supports both the roles and team assignments of each user.

P3M Engine includes role-based security. With role-based security, what screens you see and what features are available on each screen depends on your role. A project manager, a PMO analyst, and a project stakeholder can all see the same screen but will see different features or data on that screen. For example, often, stakeholders can only view information, whereas the PMO analyst and project manager may create and edit also. A PMO Lead or administrator can see configuration screens and setup configurations. Other roles cannot see these screens or the links to these screens.

Role-based security accomplishes this.

· It prevents users from accidentally altering the behavior of the system or creating unwanted outcomes by taking actions for which they have not been trained or for which they do not have responsibility or accountability.

· It optimizes the user experience to be the most efficient and effective by tailoring the experience to each role.

P3M Engine offers team-based security. Users can see only information anchored to the team (program or project) to which they are assigned. For example, suppose Jim is on Team A and Sue is on Team B and they both look at team risks. They will be viewing the same screen, but Jim will only see Team A risks and Sue will only see Team B risks. Carlos, who is assigned to both teams, will see the risks from both Team A and Team B. None of them will see the risks of other teams. Team-based security accomplishes two things.

· It prevents users from seeing information they should not see, for security reasons.

· It keeps their screens from getting too cluttered and helps them find information more quickly and easily. The information they see will always be relevant to the work they are performing.

This approach ensures that each team member sees all information relevant to the team. You do not have to author information to see it. That means if someone else creates a team risk or issue, you will be able to see it.

Some roles, such as administrators, PMO Leads, and PMO Analysts are expected to work across all projects. So, P3M Engine is smart enough to grant them access regardless of team assignments. That way administrators do not need to hassle with innumerable team assignments.

While security is table stakes for all cloud-based systems, not all cloud-based systems incorporate good design. P3M Engine security is designed from the ground up to enable smart project-based work. Good design pays dividends in the future with simpler and safer maintenance.

Work smarter, not harder.

Get more information at https://www.p3mengine.com .

Happy New Year!!!

183:690373060 (Bill Adams) — Thu, 03 Jan 2019 17:31:58 GMT

Look ahead

I hope you had a great 2018. And, I hope 2019 brings improvement for you.

P3M Engine improved a great deal in 2018. It went from inception to minimum viable product. I hope the P3M Engine journey in 2019 takes it from minimum viable product to robust enterprise toolset.

Here is what was accomplished (and discussed in this blog) in 2018.

· P3M Engine was introduced as a cloud-based, enterprise scale, PPM (Portfolio and Program Management) tool suite that was under construction.

· P3M Engine was designed to accommodate the professionally trained program and project manager. Navigation patterns itself after the PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) matrix of Process Groups and Knowledge Areas. Capabilities exist for every PMBOK referenced cell in this matrix.

· P3M Engine supports unlimited scale. The number of projects (or whatever you prefer to call them) you undertake is unlimited. The number of levels in your work hierarchy is unlimited. The size of your project is unlimited. You can manage Waterfall or Agile. Your projects can be highly governed or not.

2018 also added capabilities that have not yet appeared in this blog. I will tell you about these capabilities in the next two blog posts.

· Robust security includes both role-based security and team-based security.

· There are many features that enable you to perform to CMM (Capability Maturity Model) levels 4 and 5.

I will keep this blog post brief. It is a recap of 2018 accomplishments and an introduction to what 2019 will bring. I hope P3M Engine can serve you well.

Get more information at https://www.p3mengine.com .

Unlimited Scale

Mon, 12 Nov 2018 21:30:00 GMT

Support all projects and programs in an enterprise

Can one size really fit all? Yes, it can. In a way. P3M accomplishes this seemingly impossible feat in the same way people multi-task. They don’t really do multiple things at once. They do multiple things sequentially and really quickly. For an instant, they focus totally on what they are doing now. And they are not concerned with what they are not doing now. P3M Engine works like this too. It knows the characteristics of the project you are working on now and behaves the way you need it to behave for that project. It is capable of supporting many kinds and sizes of projects. But, it behaves now the way you need it to now.

What size project works best?

My work as a program and project management consultant has paired me with companies of all shapes and sizes and teams of all shapes and sizes. Some teams work on small projects exclusively. Others work on projects and programs with projects. Still others have an unpredictable array of work built into many hierarchies. They could have initiatives that have programs that have workstreams that have projects that have sub-projects.

Because I have had to organize work and design PMOs that support these seemingly unwieldy structures, I made sure that P3M Engine can support them too. P3M Engine will support an unlimited number of hierarchy levels in your work hierarchy, your WBS (Work Breakdown Structure).

Not only does P3M Engine keep track of the WBS and understand the parent / child relationships, it understands the difference in the kind of data you want to monitor if your project is at the bottom of the hierarchy or above the bottom.

Waterfall or Agile?

Yes.

Waterfall and Agile are very different creatures in many ways. Waterfall is predictive and Agile is adaptive. Waterfall is well suited for larger projects that must have rigor, structure, a closely controlled budget and considerable management oversight. Agile is good for teams that work closely together, are self-governed, need to be flexible and nimble, and don’t necessarily understand at the beginning all the requirements (stories). A big difference is also where flexibility is placed on the triple constraints of scope, schedule, and cost. Waterfall typically starts by defining scope and making it rigid. Some flexibility may be found for schedule and cost. Agile, on the other hand, will start by defining schedule and cost while scope (the backlog) is flexible.

If these approaches are so different, how could you possibly support both with a single tool? Because how you do the work is different, but what work you do remains the same. Notice that the priorities of the triple constraints are different, but the triple constraints themselves are the same. With both methodologies you must understand what work needs to be done. Waterfall gathers all requirements before design work begins. Agile develops stories as work progresses. Waterfall completes design before development begins while Agile completes some design with each sprint.

With P3M Engine, you declare your methodology for each project. Then the system collects and presents information the way you would expect it to, based on the type of project you are managing.

Governed or freeform?

Enterprises and small teams work differently. It is inevitable. A large enterprise will have rules and policies that promote consistency, exercise control, and support progressively aggregated reporting. These things are only a burden to small teams and offer no benefits. So, how does one tool serve both?

P3M Engine allows its customers to configure for each of these extremes and all the places in between. Once configured, P3M Engine behaves exactly the way you want it to behave. It can be hands off or it can inject alerts, suggestions, controls, and assessments to help you perform work faster and more effectively.

So, can one size really fit all? One tool cannot fit all. But, P3M Engine is not a tool. It is a tool bag. And, inside that tool bag there are lots of tools. There is a tool for every size and type of job. There are tools just right for the job you need to do.

Get more information at https://www.p3mengine.com .

Support for Professionally Trained Managers

Wed, 10 Oct 2018 01:39:37 GMT

When I introduced this blog, the first feature I said any program and project management application needed was support for professionally trained program and project managers. P3M Engine is designed for that purpose. Let me explain.

A friend and mentor of mine, Tim Pare, drilled into everyone who worked for him that every solution must have good coverage and adequacy.

· Coverage is making sure you address everything that is needed and nothing is left out

· Adequacy is making sure that everything covered is addressed with sufficient depth and quality

The PMI (Project Management Institute) provides a great reference to ensure good coverage.

Professionally trained program and project managers are certified through PMI. Much of their training comes from PMI approved training and instructors. One of the sources of information for this training and certification is the PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge).

In the PMBOK, PMI provides a matrix with all process groups across the top and all knowledge areas on the left axis. I will call this the PG/KA matrix for brevity. Each cell of the PG/KA matrix lists the activities that may be accomplished, identifying the process group and knowledge area to which the activity belongs.

P3M Engine enables and assists with every activity listed on the PG/KA matrix. This is complete coverage. Not only does P3M Engine provide the features needed, it does so with a structure and organization that aligns with the PG/KA matrix. You can view your program or project (your work) from the perspective of each process group.

· Initiating – Select the Initiating process group and you can write your charter and create your stakeholder list.

· Planning – Select the Planning process group to write your project management plan, complete with all the supporting management plans from the knowledge areas

· Executing – From the Executing process group view you can add, edit, and manage information for all the knowledge areas

· Monitoring and Controlling – This view is a complete set of dashboards that lets you monitor and control every aspect of the knowledge areas

· Closing – This view gives you everything you need to close your work

The way P3M Engine is organized assures good coverage of all the activities addressed by PMI.

As for adequacy, you be the judge. You will find that P3M Engine aligns well with and reinforces the training and certification that professional program and project managers receive. Each of the activities are intuitive. You will have the information you need. You will have the assistance you need. You will have the insights you need.

Get more information at https://www.p3mengine.com .

Are We There Yet?

183:690373060 (Bill Adams) — Wed, 05 Sep 2018 23:45:51 GMT

After deciding to build a portfolio, program, and project management tool suite, I realized the first thing I need is the right name. The name had to convey the right message and it had to be available in some form as a URL. After an exercise of reasonable duration and with consultation from a reasonable number of people, the winner was:

P3M Engine

P3M, of course stands for Portfolio, Program, and Project Management. An engine is defined as a machine that converts one form of energy (an input) into mechanical energy or power to produce force or motion (an output). As portfolio, program, and project managers, we should be able to provide an input (such as information) into our PMIS (Project Management Information System) and have that PMIS (our engine) produce a desired output, to include automating processes, illuminating information, and generally making our work less burdensome and our results more reliable.

This is what P3M Engine will do.

Like any engine, it requires an input, fuel. P3M Engine requires information. You will have to provide information. As much as possible will be automated. Some will have to be manually input. Fuel starvation will cause an engine to stop. P3M Engine is no different. If you don’t give it the information it needs to run, it will starve and stop.

The URL where you can learn more about P3M Engine is http://www.p3mengine.com .

As development of P3M Engine progresses, I will update the P3MEngine.com site to let everyone know what is coming and what is available. Right now, everything is coming and nothing is available yet. But, that will change quickly. Keep watching.

For the technically interested, here is a peek under the hood.

P3M Engine will be a cloud-based tool suite that you can use from your desktop, laptop, tablet, or mobile device from anywhere in the world that you can connect to the internet.

There are three layers of cloud-based services that all work together as a technology stack to deliver services to end users.

IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) is the backbone of a network. It includes data centers, security, and communications protocols that allow all other systems to talk to each other and transmit information.

PaaS (Platform as a Service) is the middle layer. This layer provides platforms on which software developers can create services for end users.

SaaS (Software as a Service) is the software offered to the end users. It is built on a PaaS so the software can be built faster and more reliably.

P3M Engine is SaaS. It is built on the OutSystems platform, the PaaS. OutSystems runs on AWS, the IaaS. This powerful combination will provide you with high quality portfolio, program, and project management capabilities that will grow and expand rapidly, be secure, and be available on any device from anywhere in the world.

I hope you give P3M Engine a test run and you like what you feel.

Digitally Transforming Project Management

183:690373060 (Bill Adams) — Thu, 26 Jul 2018 23:40:37 GMT

Are we the cobbler's children?

We are in an age and time when “digital transformation” is one of the predominant buzz words. Digital transformation has earned its place of prominence because a high percentage of corporate projects are classified as digital transformation projects. Many new digital innovations are catching headlines and attention. Every industry, it seems, is enjoying the newfound benefits of digital capabilities. All of the digital transformation work being accomplished is organized by projects and programs. Interestingly, project and program management does not seem to be keeping up with the pace of digital innovation. Why is this? Are we the cobbler’s children?

Usually, when I cannot find what I want in the market (to be fair I mean find what I want at a price I am willing to pay) then I build it. And this is no different. I have taken on the challenge of building the portfolio, program, and project management tool that I think will fill some gaps for our industry.

You are invited to come with me on this journey as I build the kind of tool that I want to use. This is the first blog post of a new blog I am calling ‘Digitally Transforming Project Management.’

Let’s start by identifying the problem / opportunity before us. I perceive that we, as project, program, and portfolio managers, should have ways to improve our performance while lowering cost. I recognize that there are many new digital capabilities now and more are being introduced constantly. As much as I appreciate innovation and new ways of working, what I am seeing is mostly new toys. There are some good solutions to some of the problem. But, they mostly improve on a bit here and a bit there. I am looking for that holistic solution to portfolio, program, and project management that is innovative and game-changing.

So, what are the tangible innovations that should be sought? What improvements would justify the cost of this effort? What would be a good holistic solution?

I want to consider this question as vision and objectives right now, not as requirements. At a high level, here are the things I think should be included in the vision.

A single, cohesive tool suite must:

support professionally trained project, program, and portfolio managers and meet their expectations
support all projects and programs in an enterprise
- small / large
- waterfall / agile
- governed / not governed
support standardization at enterprise, departmental, and program level
integrate with existing tools
support multiple devices and multiple locations
integrate with strategic planning / investment governance processes and tools
support (even facilitate and enforce) institutional processes
reduce manual steps and the risks that accompany them
turn data into information and information into insight
aspire to benefit-driven adoption ILO mandate-driven adoption
raise performance while reducing workload and cost
- make people more successful
- make the transition (to new tools) easy
- make the operational workload smaller

Please email me and tell me what you think should be added to this list. I may include your suggestions.

Join me as I work on a solution to this problem. I will periodically put up more blog posts to share ideas and progress.

Thanks for joining.